PH Senate president ‘requests’ major news site to remove articles about Pepsi Paloma rape case

Senator Tito Sotto. PHOTO: Creative Commons
Senator Tito Sotto. PHOTO: Creative Commons

Comedian, noontime show host, and now senate president Tito Sotto has issued a “request” to one of the country’s biggest news company, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, to take down three online articles about rape allegations against him.

Writing to Paolo Prieto, Inquirer’s chairman, Sotto said, “These kinds of unverified articles have been negatively affecting my reputation for the longest time. My efforts to clarify my side were somewhat ineffectual by reason of the afore-cited articles were shared by your readers to the (sic) social media, and those readers who knew nothing about the issue took them as the version of the truth considering that those reports came from a well-trusted company like Inquirer.net.”

Sotto adds that he is not making this request to stifle freedom of the press.

“I am making this appeal without the intention of trampling on your freedom of speech or of the press… Just like everyone, I am for the truth — a ‘balanced news’ so to speak,” Sotto wrote.

The writer of two of the mentioned articles, Rodel Rodis, posted photos of the formal request (printed on Senate of the Philippines stationery) on Facebook Saturday morning.

Rodis writes, “Senate President Tito Sotto has “requested” the Philippine Daily Inquirer to remove from its website all the articles I wrote about him (“The Rape of Pepsi Paloma” and “Was Pepsi Paloma Murdered?”). If the Inquirer agrees to his requests, a dangerous precedent will be set. Sotto is cyberbullying the Inquirer.”

The articles mentioned were The Rape of Pepsi PalomaWas Pepsi Paloma Murdered? (both by Rodis), and Tito Sotto denies whitewashing Pepsi Paloma rape case by Totel de Jesus.

Sotto, with his brother Vic and friends Joey de Leon and Richie D’Horsey, allegedly gang-raped sexy actress Pepsi Paloma in 1982 after drugging her. In October 13, 1982, the three men (excluding Tito Sotto) issued a public apology on the People’s Journal. Part of it reads: “We hope that you will not allow the error we have committed against you to stand as a stumbling block to that future which we all look forward to. We therefore ask you to find it in your heart to pardon us for the wrong which we have done against you.”

In his efforts to “clear his name”, Senator Sotto called the Pepsi Paloma scandal a “gimmick.”

Speaking at DZMM’s election coverage in 2016, Sotto said, “Para ho sa kaalaman ng lahat… gimik ho ni Rey dela Cruz (Paloma’s manager) ‘yun. Hindi ho totoo ‘yun. Pinagtangkaan nilang magkaso kasi tinira sila ng libel nina Vic (Sotto) at Joey (De Leon). Idinemanda sila ng libel kaya pinagtangkaan nilang balikan ng kaso… Hindi po totoo ‘yun, wala pong katotohanan.

(Just so you know, that [scandal] was a gimmick by Rey Dela Cruz. It’s not true. They tried to file a case but they were hit with libel by Vic Sotto and Joey De Leon. They got sued for libel so they tried counter-filing… That is not true. There’s no truth to that.)

Three years after the alleged rape, Paloma was found dead inside her apartment in an apparent suicide.

In the same radio program in 2016, Sotto blamed Paloma’s death on illegal drugs.

With report from ABS-CBN News



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